Method of forming a wordline

ABSTRACT

In one aspect, the invention encompasses a semiconductor processing method comprising contacting a surface with a liquid solution comprising at least one fluorine-containing species and a temperature of at least about 40° C. In another aspect, the invention encompasses a method of passivating a silicon-comprising layer comprising contacting the layer with a liquid solution comprising hydrogen fluoride and a temperature of at least about 40° C. In yet another aspect, the invention encompasses a method of forming hemispherical grain polysilicon comprising: a) forming a layer comprising substantially amorphous silicon over a substrate; b) contacting the layer comprising substantially amorphous silicon with a liquid solution comprising fluorine-containing species and a temperature of at least about 40° C.; c) seeding the layer comprising substantially amorphous silicon; and d) annealing the seeded layer to convert at least a portion of the seeded layer to hemispherical grain polysilicon.

RELATED PATENT DATA

This patent is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/018,228, which was filed on Feb. 3, 1998 now U.S. Pat. No.6,083,849, and is hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference,which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/659,145, filed on Jun. 5, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,783,495 and herebyincorporated in its entirety by reference; which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/559,188,filed on Nov. 13, 1995 now abandoned and hereby incorporated in itsentirety by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention pertains to semiconductor processing methods in whichmaterials are exposed to liquid solutions comprising fluorine-containingspecies.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many semiconductor fabrication processes comprise one or more stepswherein a material is exposed to fluorine-containing species. Thefluorine-containing species can be, for example, in the form of hydrogenfluoride. An example use of hydrogen fluoride in semiconductorfabrication processes is to strip silicon dioxide from a surface.Another example use of hydrogen fluoride is to passivate a siliconsurface (i.e., to react hydrogen with dangling silicon bonds).

Passivation of silicon surfaces and/or stripping of silicon dioxide canbe utilized to enhance formation of hemispherical grain (HSG)polysilicon. Example HSG polysilicon fabrication processes are describedin U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,634,974 and 5,691,228, which are incorporated hereinby reference. Generally, the fabrication processes disclosed in suchpatents comprise forming a layer of amorphous silicon, passivatingand/or cleaning the layer of amorphous silicon with hydrofluoric acid,and converting the amorphous silicon to HSG polysilicon. A method ofconverting amorphous silicon to HSG polysilicon comprises seeding theamorphous silicon by, for example, irradiation or doping, to formnucleation centers for subsequent growth of individual grains of HSGpolysilicon. HSG polysilicon is grown from the nucleation centers byannealing the seeded amorphous silicon at, for example, a temperature offrom about 200° C. to about 1500° C. and a pressure of from about 1×10⁻⁸Torr to about 1 atmosphere for a time of from about one second to aboutfive hours.

The hydrofluoric acid treatments utilized in the above-describedfabrication of HSG polysilicon either comprise an HF vapor clean, or adip within an HF solution. If a dip is utilized, the temperature of thedip solution will be about 21.5° C. The dip solution is generally keptwithin a vessel configured to cool the dip solution to maintain atemperature of about 21.5° C. An advantage of the 21.5° C. temperatureis that it is a temperature which has traditionally been used for HFdipping, and accordingly there is a large amount of informationavailable pertaining to appropriate dipping times and conditions forvarious applications. Another advantage is that the equipment presentlymanufactured for dipping within HF solutions is configured to maintain atemperature of about 21.5° C. If the temperature were to varysignificantly, it would introduce unwanted variability into afabrication process.

It is desired to develop alternative methods of utilizingfluorine-containing species for treating materials during semiconductivefabrication processes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the invention encompasses a semiconductor processingmethod wherein a surface is contacted with a liquid solution comprisingone or more fluorine-containing species and a temperature of at leastabout 40° C.

In another aspect, the invention encompasses a method of passivating asilicon-comprising layer wherein the layer is contacted with a liquidsolution comprising hydrogen fluoride and a temperature of at leastabout 40° C.

In another aspect, the invention encompasses a method of forming HSGpolysilicon. A layer comprising substantially amorphous silicon isformed over a substrate. The layer comprising substantially amorphoussilicon is contacted with a liquid solution comprising one or morefluorine-containing species and a temperature of at least about 40° C.The layer comprising substantially amorphous silicon is seeded andannealed to convert at least a portion of the layer to HSG polysilicon.

In yet another aspect, the invention encompasses a method of forming awordline. A silicon layer is formed over a substrate. The silicon layeris passivated by contacting it with a liquid solution comprisinghydrogen fluoride. The liquid solution is at a temperature of at leastabout 40° C. during the contacting. After the passivating, a silicidelayer is formed over the silicon layer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the invention are described below withreference to the following accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary, diagrammatic, cross-sectional view of asemiconductor wafer fragment at a preliminary processing step of amethod of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view of the FIG. 1 wafer fragment shown at a processing stepsubsequent to that of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a view of the FIG. 1 wafer fragment shown at a processing stepsubsequent to that of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a view of the FIG. 1 wafer fragment shown at a processing stepsubsequent to that of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary, diagrammatic, cross-sectional view of asemiconductor wafer fragment illustrating a capacitor constructionformed by an alternative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary, diagrammatic, cross-sectional view of asemiconductor wafer fragment being processed according to a secondembodiment method of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a view of the FIG. 6 wafer fragment at a processing stepsubsequent to that of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a graph of surface enhancement versus etch time, comparingsilicon surfaces treated according to a method of the present inventionwith silicon surfaces treated according to prior art methods.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

This disclosure of the invention is submitted in furtherance of theconstitutional purposes of the U.S. Patent Laws “to promote the progressof science and useful arts” (Article 1, Section 8).

A first embodiment process of the present invention is described withreference to FIGS. 1-4, wherein the first embodiment process is a methodof forming a capacitor. Referring first to FIG. 1, a wafer fragment 10comprises a substrate 12 and an insulative material 14 formed oversubstrate 12. Substrate 12 can comprise, for example, a monocrystallinesilicon wafer lightly doped with a background p-type dopant. To aid ininterpretation of the claims that follow, the term “semiconductivesubstrate” is defined to mean any construction comprising semiconductivematerial, including, but not limited to, bulk semiconductive materialssuch as a semiconductive wafer (either alone or in assemblies comprisingother materials thereon), and semiconductive material layers (eitheralone or in assemblies comprising other materials). The term “substrate”refers to any supporting structure, including, but not limited to, thesemiconductive substrates described above.

Insulative layer 14 can comprise, for example, borophosphosilicate glass(BPSG). An opening 16 is formed through insulative layer 14 and tosubstrate 12. A node location 18 is defined within substrate 12 at abottom of opening 16. Node location 18 can comprise, for example, aconductively doped diffusion region within substrate 12. Such diffusionregion can be formed either before or after formation of insulativelayer 14 by conventional methods, such as, for example, ion implanting.

Referring to FIG. 2, an amorphous silicon layer 20 is formed overinsulative layer 14 and within opening 16. Amorphous silicon layer 20can be formed by conventional methods, such as, for example, chemicalvapor deposition. In accordance with the present invention, layer 20 isexposed to a liquid solution comprising one or more fluorine-containingspecies and maintained at a temperature of at least about 40° C. Theliquid solution can be in the form of, for example, a liquid bath withthe vast majority (greater than 99%) of the liquid in the bathcomprising a temperature of at least about 40° C. Such bath willpreferably be in a vessel configured to heat the bath to maintain thetemperature of at least about 40° C. Thus, the bath will have atemperature of at least about 40° C. before contacting layer 20, andwill maintain such temperature during contacting of layer 20.

Exposure of layer 20 to the liquid passivates and/or strips oxide fromover layer 20. After the exposure to the liquid solution comprisingfluorine-containing species, layer 20 is converted to an HSG layer 30(shown in FIG. 3). The conversion to HSG layer can be accomplished byseeding and annealing procedures, such as, for example, those describedin U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,634,974 and 5,691,228.

The treatment of layer 20 with the liquid solution comprisingfluorine-containing species can occur, for example, for a time of fromabout five seconds to about 20 minutes, with times of from about oneminute to about two minutes being more preferred. It is to beunderstood, however, that treatment times are generally not critical tomethods of the present invention. Accordingly, the present inventionencompasses applications in which an upper limit of the treatment timecan extend beyond 20 minutes. Also, treatment pressures are generallynot critical to methods of the present invention, and treatmentpressures can be higher, lower or equal to about one atmosphere.

A treatment liquid of the present invention is a liquid solutioncomprising fluorine-containing species. An example liquid solutioncomprising fluorine-containing species is a solution comprising fromabout 0.1% to about 49% hydrogen fluoride (by weight) and from about 51%to about 99.9% water (by weight). Such solutions can be formed, forexample, by mixing commercial hydrogen fluoride solutions (generallyobtained as a 49% (by weight) HF solution) with water. Another exampleliquid solution comprising fluorine-containing species is a solutioncomprising from about 0.1% to about 49% hydrogen fluoride (by weight),from about 28% to about 99.85% water (by weight), and from about 0.05%to about 23% tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) (by weight). Suchsolutions can be formed, for example, by mixing commercial hydrogenfluoride solutions (generally obtained as 49% (by weight) HF in water)with commercial TMAH solutions (generally obtained as 25% (by weight)TMAH in water), and water.

It can be advantageous to utilize liquid solutions comprising both TMAHand HF when differing materials are to be exposed to the liquidsolutions, because the TMAH can equalize a rate at which HF etchesdiffering materials. Specifically, the TMAH can form a diffusion barrierover surfaces as the surfaces are exposed to a mixture of HF and TMAH.The diffusion barrier can change a rate limiting step of an HF etch frometch chemistry to diffusion through the barrier layer, and can therebyequalize a rate at which hydrogen fluoride etches differing materials.For instance, if a wafer surface comprises silicon dioxide and BPSG, theBPSG and silicon dioxide surfaces will typically be etched at vastlydifferent rates by HF. However, if TMAH is present, the TMAH will form adiffusion barrier over the BPSG and silicon dioxide surfaces. The HFwill then need to diffuse through the barrier layer before etching theBPSG and silicon dioxide surfaces. If such diffusion through the barrierlayer becomes a rate-limiting step, the barrier layer can equalize arate at which the BPSG and silicon dioxide are etched.

The present invention utilization of a liquid hydrogen fluoride solutionat a temperature of at least about 40° C. can create significantadvantages over prior art utilizations of liquid hydrogen fluoridesolutions at about 21° C. For instance, the graph of FIG. 8 illustratesthat processing temperatures above 40° C. significantly enhance thecapacitive characteristics of a HSG polysilicon layer formed accordingto the method of the present invention relative to HSG polysiliconlayers formed according to prior art methods. Specifically, FIG. 8 is agraph of surface enhancement versus etch time (i.e., exposure time to anHF solution) for various HSG layers. Surface enhancement is defined as(Cap_(grain)−Cap_(flat))/Cap_(flat)), wherein Cap_(grain) refers to thecapacitance of a capacitor formed with HSG generated from amorphoussilicon exposed to liquid HF at an indicated temperature, and Cap_(flat)refers to the capacitance of a capacitor formed from non-HSGpolysilicon. Etch time is the time for which an amorphous silicon layeris exposed to a liquid solution comprising HF (specifically, HF andtetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH)), and comprising an indicatedtemperature. The graph indicates that treatment of amorphous siliconwith an HF solution at temperatures above 40° C. will enhancecapacitance of HSG formed from such amorphous silicon layers. The graphfurther indicates that the enhanced capacitance gained by treatingamorphous silicon with liquid HF above 40° C. is beyond what can beachieved by conventional HF etching at about 21° C., regardless of howlong the conventional etching lasts.

Referring to FIG. 4, HSG polysilicon layer 30 is incorporated into acapacitor construction 50. Specifically, a dielectric layer 32 and acapacitor plate layer 34 are formed over HSG polysilicon layer 30.Dielectric layer 32 can comprise, for example, silicon nitride and/orsilicon dioxide, and can be formed by conventional methods, such as, forexample chemical vapor deposition. Upper capacitor plate layer 34 cancomprise, for example, conductively doped polysilicon, and can also beformed by conventional methods, such as, for example, chemical vapordeposition. Capacitor assembly 50 can be incorporated into integratedcircuitry by methods known to persons of ordinary skill in the art.

Although the above-described method for forming a capacitor constructionutilized an amorphous silicon layer 20 (shown in FIG. 2) which wassubsequently converted to a HSG polysilicon layer 30 (shown in FIG. 3),it is to be understood that the invention can encompass other methods offorming a capacitor which are not shown. For instance, the layer 20shown in FIG. 2 can be a polysilicon layer. Such polysilicon layer canbe treated with a liquid solution comprising fluorine-containing speciesand a temperature of at least 40° C. in accordance with the method ofthe present invention to passivate the polysilicon layer. Thepolysilicon layer can then be incorporated directly into a capacitorstructure, without converting the polysilicon layer to HSG polysilicon.

The embodiment of FIGS. 1-4 illustrates a method of utilizing thepresent invention to form a container capacitor construction. Thepresent invention also encompasses methods of forming alternativecapacitor constructions. For instance, FIG. 5 illustrates a waferfragment 100 comprising an alternative capacitor construction 102. Waferfragment 100 comprises a substrate 104 and a conductive plug 106 formedover the substrate.

Substrate 104 can comprise, for example, monocrystalline silicon, andconductive plug 106 can comprise, for example, conductively dopedpolysilicon.

An insulating layer 108 is formed over substrate 104 and around plug106. Insulating layer 108 can comprise, for example, silicon dioxide.

An electrical node 110 is formed within substrate 104 and against plug106. Node 110 can comprise, for example, a diffusion region.

A first capacitor plate 112, dielectric layer 114 and second capacitorplate 116 are formed operatively adjacent plug 106 to form capacitorconstruction 102. First and second capacitor plates 112 and 116 cancomprise, for example, conductively doped polysilicon, and firstcapacitor plate preferably comprises conductively doped hemisphericalgrain polysilicon. One or both of first and second capacitor plates 112and 116 can be formed by a method comprising dipping a polysilicon layerin a bath comprising fluorine-containing species and a temperature of atleast about 40° C. Dielectric layer 114 can comprise, for example,silicon nitride or silicon oxide.

The above-described embodiments are methods of forming a capacitorconstructions. Another application in which HF dipping can be utilizedto clean and passivate a surface is during formation of wordlines.Wordlines are commonly formed by first providing a layer of polysilicon,and subsequently providing a silicide layer over the polysilicon. Thesilicide layer can be formed, for example, by exposing a surface of thepolysilicon to conditions which convert such surface to silicide.Frequently, it is desired to clean a polysilicon surface prior toforming silicide from such surface. A method of cleaning a polysiliconsurface is to dip the polysilicon within a liquid solution comprisingfluorine-containing species. In accordance with the present invention,such solution can comprise a temperature of at least about 40° C.

A method of forming a wordline in accordance with the present inventionis described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. Referring first to FIG. 6,a wafer fragment 60 comprises a substrate 62, a gate oxide layer 64 anda polysilicon wordline 66 formed over gate oxide 64. Substrate 62 cancomprise, for example, monocrystalline silicon conductively doped with abackground dopant. Gate oxide layer 64 can comprise, for example,silicon dioxide. Wordline 66 can comprise polysilicon conductively dopedwith a conductivity-enhancing impurity. As will be recognized by personsof ordinary skill in the art, wordline 66 can be formed by patterning alayer of polysilicon into a wordline shape. In accordance with thepresent invention, wordline 66 is treated with a liquid solutioncomprising fluorine-containing species and comprising a temperature ofat least about 40° C. to passivate silicon within wordline 66. Treatmentof the polysilicon of wordline 66 can occur before or after thepatterning of a layer of polysilicon into the wordline shape.

Referring to FIG. 7, a silicide layer 68 is formed over the treatedpolysilicon of wordline 66. Silicide layer 68 can be formed byconventional methods such as, for example, by depositing a metal over anupper surface of the polysilicon of wordline 66 and reacting the metalwith the silicon to form silicide layer 68. As will be recognized bypersons of ordinary skill in the art, sidewalls of wordline 66 willgenerally be blocked by, for example, sidewall spacers, as a metal isformed over the upper surface of wordline 66 to prevent metal fromdepositing on the sides. Sidewall blocking materials are not shown inFIGS. 6 and 7 because they are not germane to the present invention, andbecause persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize howand when to incorporate sidewall spacers into a method of the presentinvention.

In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described inlanguage more or less specific as to structural and methodical features.It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited tothe specific features shown and described, since the means hereindisclosed comprise preferred forms of putting the invention into effect.The invention is, therefore, claimed in any of its forms ormodifications within the proper scope of the appended claimsappropriately interpreted in accordance with the doctrine ofequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of forming a wordline comprising:forming a silicon layer over a substrate; passivating the silicon layerby contacting the silicon layer with a liquid solution comprisinghydrogen fluoride, the liquid solution being at a temperature of atleast about 40° C. during the contacting; and after the passivating,forming a silicide layer over the silicon layer.
 2. The method of claim1 wherein the liquid solution is in a vessel configured to heat theliquid solution to maintain the temperature of at least about 40° C.during the contacting.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the siliconlayer comprises polysilicon.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the liquidsolution comprises from about 0.1% to about 49% hydrogen fluoride (byweight) and from about 51% to about 99.9% water (by weight).
 5. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the contacting occurs for a time of from about5 seconds to about 20 minutes.